Greenpeace, BFAR conduct license checks at the port of Pio Duran in Albay.

Greenpeace activists unfurl the banner reading "Stop Ocean Destruction" in front of the Divine Mercy, a commercial fishing vessel anchored near the port of Pio Duran, Albay Province, around 500 kilometers south of Manila.The vessel does not have a proper license to operate. The Greenpeace ship, M/Y Esperanza is in the Philippines for the “Ocean Defender Tour of Southeast Asia 2013.” The tour aims to tell the story of the richness and the beauty of the Philippine seas, expose destruction that causes marine degradation and sound the alarm to call for urgent government action to save the Philippine seas from crisis. Greenpeace and the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) today vowed to end illegal fishing, which they said was the “scourge of the Philippine seas.” Greenpeace is calling for more stringent measure to stop illegal fishing in Philippine waters.